So You Want To Be An Outsider Poet?

Actually, if you decide to be an Outsider Poet you will get none of this stuff. Let me rewind for a second, because I'm not sure one can decide to be an Outsider Poet or Artist any more than one can decide to be gay or straight. I feel, unfortunately, there are some people out there capitalizing on self-identifying as Outsider Poets or Artists when what they really mean is that they feel like outsiders. Ironically, some of those people have been very successful in carving out a very comfortable nest in the University system, which is in itself the opposite of the outside. It wouldn't really be that important to me to point out who is and who isn't in any particular group, but Outsiders already have a certain amount of obstacles in their way just to create, so faux Outsiders are the last thing one needs when trying to find an audience for one's work. 

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